Welcome to the Future
by SC84
Summary: An AU fiction that combines the Mass Effect and Crysis universes. A recently revived Commander Jane Shepard must assemble a new team to face the threat of the Collectors. Along the way, she finds another "dead" soldier: Alcatraz, in his Nanosuit, frozen and forgotten in an ancient Ceph ruin. Ignores Crysis 3. Slightly changes events prior to Mass Effect 1. NOT A SHIPPING FIC.
1. Prologue

Crysis is the property of Crytek and Electronic Arts

Mass Effect is the property of Bioware and Electronic Arts

* * *

**Excerpt from Audio Transcript- Post Combat Debrief, The Battle for Earth **

**Subject ID : Unknown (self-designated Alcatraz)**

**17/03/2187**

Just call me Alcatraz. Yeah, I know it's not a real name, but that doesn't matter. I spent 25 years responding to someone else's name because I had _his_ memories in _my_ head, and I'm definitely not the same guy I was before it happened. But now _I'm_ still here, and _he's_ gone. I never liked my old name, and there's no way in _hell_ I'm going to keep using his, so for now, you can just call me Alcatraz.

Look, I've done these things before. You want to hear my story, just tell me where to start.

Okay. I first met Commander Shepard two years ago, on the fifth of March, 2185. From what I've been told, she first met me around 72 hours before then. Technically. I wasn't exactly conscious at the time. Arguably, I wasn't even alive.

**Codex Entry- 'Alcatraz'**

Aside from his position on the now-legendary Commander Jane Shepard's "ground team", little is known about the individual known as Alcatraz. Though his appearance and chosen name suggest Human origins, no information regarding him has been made available by the Systems Alliance.

**Codex Entry- Charybdis (Ceph)**

The Charybdis, colloquially known as "Ceph", are a mysterious, highly advanced species. Remnants of their technology has been found scattered throughout the galaxy, including biological specimens that some speculate represent individuals of the species. A large number of these remnants have been found on Earth, the Human homeworld. These relics have the capacity to be incredibly dangerous, as demonstrated by the Manhattan Incursion, an event that occurred when a previously undiscovered cache of Charybdis technology buried beneath New York City self activated, causing extreme property damage and heavy loss of civilian life.

**Shadow Broker Dossier- 'Alcatraz'**

Nanoshell Operator, Human. Former USMC, currently collaborating with Systems Alliance forces.

Date of Birth: 25th May, 2000 CE (Systems Alliance Standard Calendar)

Augmentations caused by the nanoshell have brought his physical and mental capabilities to significantly beyond normal human levels.

* * *

Author's Note: This is an idea for a story that I've been working on for a few weeks now. The focus is going to be the story of Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3, but largely (or entirely) related through the perspective of Alcatraz, from Crysis 2, Crysis: Legion and soon, Crysis 3. I don't currently plan on changing the canon for Mass Effect too drastically, but we'll see how this all pans out. I'll also try and stick to Crysis canon as best I can, but with Crysis 3 on the horizon, I have no idea how well that's gonna turn out. Chapter 2 should be out within the week. Critiques enthusiastically welcomed.


	2. Chapter 1: Setting the Scene

Crysis is the property of Crytek and Electronic Arts

Mass Effect is the property of Bioware and Electronic Arts

* * *

Welcome to the Future: Chapter 1

Shepard didn't know what she had expected before seeing Kaidan again. She certainly hadn't been expecting a tearful reunion, but the bitter resentment that she received had still shocked her.

In hindsight, she _should_ have expected it, should have been prepared for it, but she'd had more important things on her mind than preparing for an awkward reintroduction.

Somewhere in the back of her mind she had realised that Kaidan had spent two years believing her dead, and that some serious explanations would be in order if she got the chance to speak to him. But then he'd walked in out of nowhere, and she'd just been so damn _happy _to see him that practically the first words out her mouth were a trite: "How have you been?"

_How have you been. Jesus. Two years without any contact, and that's the first thing I say to him? No wonder he's pissed._

And the more she thought about it, the more angry she got. Why _hadn't_ she tried to contact him?

_Because he thought I was dead, and an extranet message isn't a remotely appropriate way to let someone know you're alive. What was I supposed to say?_

_"Hey, it's me, Shepard. I was dead for a while, but I'm better now. How's it going?"_

And he'd somehow heard about her being involved with Cerberus. How the hell had _that_ happened?

_Oh, I think I know how that happened. The Illusive Man let some rumors out, to make sure I couldn't go running to the Alliance for help. Bastard._

She stepped into the Normandy's Communications Room, pausing as the door closed behind her. Took a few deep breaths as the room went dark and the conference table sank into the floor. A holographic mesh floated before her, marking the activation area for the Normandy's communications array.  
_Need to keep a clear head. I'm doing this to protect the colonists. I'm stopping the Collectors, and then I'm stopping the Reapers, and I'm going to save this galaxy. Again._

She took another step forward into the holographic mesh, triggering the room's projectors. Another hologram appeared before her, showing the Illusive Man calmly flicking ash from his cigarette.

"Shepard. Good work on Horizon. Hopefully, the Collectors will think twice before attacking another colony."

"It's not a victory. We interrupted the Collectors, but they still abducted half the colony."

"That's better than an entire colony, and more than we've accomplished since the abductions began. The Collectors will be more careful now, but I think we can find another way to lure them in."

Shepard narrowed her eyes.

_Lure them in? You bastard, you caused that attack, didn't you?_

Aloud, she asked: "Kaidan said the Alliance got a tip about me and Cerberus. Was that you?"

The Illusive Man took a drag on his cigarette before replying.

"I may have let it slip that you were alive. And with Cerberus."

Shepard's expression didn't change, but the ragged scar that ran through her right eyebrow began to pulse with a blood-red glow.

"You risked the lives of my friend, my crew, and that entire colony? Just to lure the Collectors there?"

The Illusive Man's response was just what she expected. Calm, smug, and self-righteous.

"A calculated risk. I suspected the Collectors were looking for you, or people connected to you. Now I know for certain. I told you I wouldn't wait for the Reapers and Collectors to gather strength. Besides, they would have hit another colony eventually. And without a way to predict which one, we wouldn't have been able to intervene. They would've taken everyone."

It was a valid argument, and not one she could object to. At least, not on a practical basis. But on a moral basis...

_There's nothing more dangerous than someone who believes they're doing the right thing._

"We have to make sure they don't abduct anyone else," Shepard said. "Make sure no more colonies get hit."

"I want the Collectors stopped for that very reason. That's why we're doing this, Shepard. Right now, I'm devoting all of my resources to finding a way through the Omega 4 Relay. We have to hit them where they live."

The Illusive Man paused, and shifted slightly in his chair before he continued.

"Your team will need to be strong, as will their resolve. The same goes for you. Can I assume you've put your past relationships behind you?"

"That's none of your god-damn business."

"Shepard, I want to be up front about your odds. When you go through the Omega 4 Relay, there's no guarantee that you'll return. To have any hope of surviving, you and your entire team need to be fully committed to this."

"Let me worry about my team. You just find us a way to the Collector homeworld."

"Very well. I've forwarded three more dossiers. Keep building your team while I find a way through the relay. And one last thing, Shepard. We recently lost contact with one of our cells, a research team. Before they went dark, they claimed to have made a significant discovery. Their base of operations is less than a day's travel from your current location, so you're in a perfect position to investigate. I've sent their coordinates to your private terminal."

Shepard nodded, and said "I'll see what I can do."

With that, she stepped backwards, terminating the call.


	3. Chapter 2: NK386

Crysis is the property of Crytek and Electronic Arts

Mass Effect is the property of Bioware and Electronic Arts

* * *

Welcome to the Future: Chapter 2

At first glance, NK386 was an unexceptional ball of ice and rock slightly larger than Earth's Moon, orbiting a white dwarf star at a distance of 4.6 astronomical units. But if one took the time to actually _watch_ the small planet, to observe it as it travelled along its orbit, they would soon notice something strange.

Put simply, NK386 was moving too slowly. An object of its size, moving at its current velocity should not have been able to maintain a stable orbit around its sun. It should have spiralled inwards, eventually colliding with the star and being absorbed by it. Instead, it travelled onwards in an almost perfectly circular orbit, despite having only 78% of the velocity that an object of its size should have needed to avoid literally falling into the sun.

Where other organisations had simply noted the anomaly and offered speculation, Cerberus had sent a team to investigate. And what they had found made "a significant discovery" sound like the understatement of the century.

Discovering remnants from ancient alien civilisations on worlds that never supported life was uncommon, but not unheard of. Usually, such discoveries were the remains of small outposts, much like the Prothean ruins that had been discovered on Mars.

In contrast, the Cerberus team on NK386 had discovered hundreds of interconnected hollow structures buried just below the planet's surface, and one especially large structure which reached miles down towards the planet's core.

After sixteen months of exploring and investigating the largest structure, the team had reported making "an exciting and significant discovery."

And then they had gone silent.

Now, twenty-seven days after the team's last transmission, a UT-47 Kodiak "Drop-Shuttle" was descending towards the surface of NK386.

Miranda had volunteered to pilot the shuttle down to the surface while the Normandy stayed in orbit, leaving Shepard and the rest of the ground team to ride in the shuttle's twelve-man passenger compartment.

Jacob, Grunt, Kasumi and Garrus had elected to tag along, eager for an excuse to leave the confines of the ship. Mordin too had chosen to join the ground team, declaring it an "excellent opportunity to study unknown alien culture."

Only Jack had decided to stay on board the Normandy, having had no interest in "some lousy rescue mission to save a bunch of Cerberus **cks."

As they approached the structure that was the Cerberus team's last known location, Miranda activated the shuttle's intercom.

"Commander Shepard, we'll be reaching the structure in five minutes."

"Copy that, Miranda. Team, prep yourselves for landing. Miranda, any luck contacting the research team?"

"Negative, Commander. I've been scanning and broadcasting on the standard Cerberus frequencies, but I haven't detected any transmissions."

Shepard nodded, even though Miranda couldn't possibly have seen the gesture.

"Alright team, we're probably looking at a salvage and recovery mission, not a search and rescue. We don't know what's happened to the research team, so be prepared for a possible hostile presence. There's also a chance that the research team has just suffered a communications failure, so watch your fire if you see movement. Do not engage unless you have a clear target. And remember, this isn't a garden world. Keep your breathers on, and make sure your environmental controls are working, because it is going to be _cold_. Everybody got that?"

The Alliance Marines that she had once commanded would have responded with an unnecessarily loud "Yes Ma'am!"

Now, the only spoken response she got was from Kasumi, who had piped up with a less than formal "Got it, Shep."

The others just nodded their heads and continued with their equipment checks.

Minutes later, as the shuttle landed, Shepard was the first out the door. Looking around, she saw nothing but frozen rock stretching out to the horizon in all directions.

"Miranda, are you sure these are the right co-ordinates? I don't see anything that looks remotely like an opening to an underground structure."

"Commander, the entrance to the structure is on the _other_ side of the shuttle."

"... Oh."

Garrus was unable to resist joining in the conversation.

"And _this_ is what Cerberus spent four billion credits on? Maybe they should have coughed up a little bit more, made some improvements to your eyes."

Shepard rolled her eyes, though she did have to fight back a laugh before responding.

"You're one to talk, _Archangel_. At least I don't freeze like a deer in the headlights when I see a rocket headed for my face."

"Touché."

By then, the rest of the ground team had vacated the shuttle, and Shepard had gotten serious again.

"Alright, team. Let's get to work. We get in and out of that structure before nightfall. That gives us a seven hour window. I don't want to spend any more time on this rock than we absolutely have to. Move out."

As soon as she got to the corner of the shuttle, Shepard saw the entrance to the structure.

It was hard to miss.

A small tower jutted out of the icy rock, maybe 40 feet tall, around 8 feet wide.

_No, not a tower. A spire._

The sides were segmented, as if the structure was designed to flex, and the top tapered off into a maw of giant buzzsaws. It reminded her of the flexible drilling machines used to carve out sewers on new colonies. At ground level, a five-foot wide gash in the side of the spire revealed that it was hollow. The interior glowed dimly with blood-red light.

Cautiously, Shepard leaned into the opening and looked downwards. The tunnel formed by the spire went down further than she could see, but she couldn't see far. The dim red glow was washed out just a few feet down by a bright, neon-blue glare that her helmet's filters couldn't quite compensate for. Still, her omni-tool wasn't detecting anything hazardous, be it radiological, chemical, biological or mechanical. The wall of the tunnel immediately below the opening had been lined with metal rungs to act as a ladder, presumably by the Cerberus team that had preceded her own.

Signalling to the rest of the ground team to follow, Shepard eased herself onto the ladder and began her descent.

* * *

Author's Note: Apologies that these chapters are somewhat short, but I'm trying to get a schedule going of posting one a week. My job doesn't leave me a lot of time to write. Hopefully the chapters will be easier to write and will get longer once I get back to established Mass Effect canon and actually have something to base settings/situations on. I also intend to narrate mostly from the First-Person once Alcatraz is introduced, so that should make writing easier. Third-person limited is _hard_.


	4. Chapter 3: Investigation, Incursion

Crysis is the property of Crytek and Electronic Arts

Mass Effect is the property of Bioware and Electronic Arts

* * *

Welcome to the Future: Chapter 3

Lieutenant Commander Jane Shepard was not a woman who used hyperbole lightly. If life had taught her anything, it was that things could always be worse.

Fights could always get tougher, the stakes could always get higher, and the situation could _always_ get more fucked up. She had learned how to keep things in perspective, and she had learned it the hard way. A kid who was bigger than you trying to take your lunch was an inconvenience. A Batarian mercenary armed with a Kishock Harpoon Gun was a problem.

By that measure, N7 training had been difficult enough to push her to the extent of her abilities, but it had not been _hell_, as so many of the other graduates had put it. Defending Elysium from the Batarians until reinforcements arrived had also been a difficult task, and one that had come with a high chance of failure, but it had obviously not been _impossible_, or the defence would never have succeeded. And likewise, the mountains of Noveria had not been _freezing_, they had just been cold.

The structure below NK386, however, was truly freezing. The research team had stated in their reports that the temperature inside the structure had been -197 degrees Celsius, which Shepard had understood to be very, very cold. She had therefore ordered the ground team to prepare accordingly, which in this case meant that they were all wearing heavy, vacuum-rated hardsuits equipped with internal environmental controls. It had apparently been the first time that any of the Normandy's crew had seen Miranda wearing something other than one of her customary skin-tight suits, given by the number of double-takes she had collected while walking to the hangar bay.

And yet, even with armor designed to withstand the cold of deep space, Shepard could feel the chill of the thin atmosphere contained within the structure. Moisture fogged on the inside of her helmet's visor every time she exhaled, threatening to blind her, but the helmet's dedicated anti-fogging systems managed to keep the level of condensation to a minimum.

She found it difficult to believe that the research team had actually chosen to set up their camp inside the structure. How they had managed to survive in these conditions for over a year was completely beyond her.

As she stepped cautiously through the narrow tunnel, the rest of her team trailing loosely behind her in single file, Shepard noticed small clusters of jagged, crystalline spikes that had formed on the tunnel's otherwise bare, metallic surfaces. Visibility was still poor; though the blue lights that illuminated the tunnel had become more sparse as the team moved forward, they were still blindingly bright, a fact not helped by the presence of a thick mist that made the glare from the lights almost impenetrable. Anything further away than 10 feet or so was just a nebulous shadow lost in the blazing mist. She had turned around, once, to tell Kasumi to stop complaining about the cold- an unnecessary gesture, given the nature of radio communications, but human instinct still said that you turned to face someone when you spoke to them. She had seen Garrus, at her back as always, and Jacob, a few feet behind him, but beyond that there was only the barest hint of Grunt's bulk visible through the haze. Her HUD told her that Miranda, Kasumi and Mordin were only a few metres away, but if it hadn't been for their transponders, Shepard would have had no way of knowing they were there.

Reaching what seemed to be the end of the tunnel, Shepard gave the order to halt. They had no real idea as to why the Cerberus researchers had stopped reporting in, and Shepard wasn't about to dismiss the possibility of a hostile presence. And if hostile forces _were_ present, this would have been a perfect area for an ambush. Emerging from the cramp confines of the tunnel into the comparatively large, dark space that it opened into, the team would be completely vulnerable. A few rounds, or a single well placed grenade would be sufficient to devastate Shepard's meager force of seven. Returning her shotgun to its stored position across her back, Shepard drew her Carnifex pistol and took the last step towards the mouth of the tunnel. Linking the pistol's built-in sensors to her HUD, she slowly panned it 180 degrees across the opening of the tunnel, scanning the area ahead for any signs of life. Finding no such signs, and mentally dismissing the possibility of an entirely synthetic force, she signaled the rest of the team to follow as she stepped forward into the next chamber.

Thanks to a combination of standard Alliance Military gene-mods and automated visual filters, it took slightly less than a second for Shepard's eyes to adjust to the darkness of the new space. What she saw vaguely reminded her of a cathedral she'd once seen a documentary vid about. The area was vast, nearly 200 feet wide, though it was difficult to tell. The mist that was present in the tunnel was still noticeable here, though it seemed to be much thinner. The far end of the chamber was too far away to be seen in the mist, as was the ceiling. Hanging in the middle of the space was what looked to be a giant pipe, roughly 30 feet in diameter, that stretched the length of the chamber. The bottom of the pipe was translucent, and a pulsating blue glow came from within it. The sides of the pipe seemed to be made of the same dull gray metal that had formed the walls of the tunnel, and that also formed the floor of this gigantic chamber. The floor directly below the "pipe" was smooth, except for a strange geometric pattern that seemed to have been polished into the surface, rather than etched or carved.

On either side of this smooth section of the floor were large spurs of the same crystalline substance that Shepard had seen in the tunnel. The clumps of crystal formed parallel lines on either side of the smooth area of the floor, like plants lining a 30 foot wide garden path. Beyond the crystals, the floor curved upwards like an immense half-pipe to join the walls. And in the center of the clear path, less than 20 feet away from the tunnel entrance, lay the remains of the Cerberus research team's base camp.

* * *

Author's Note: Alcatraz will show up next chapter, I promise. Also, my hopes of posting one chapter a week proved to be way too optimistic.


	5. Chapter 4: The Cold Road

Crysis is the property of Crytek and Electronic Arts

Mass Effect is the property of Bioware and Electronic Arts

* * *

Welcome to the Future: Chapter 4

There were no signs of hostile activity. At least, there were no signs of an armed struggle. No tell-tale charred marks from hypervelocity impacts, no bloodstains, no smashed equipment, and most obviously, no corpses. In fact, there was no sign of activity of any sort. Floodlights had been set up, but they were unlit. Portable nuclear-thermoelectric generators littered the site, cheery green lights indicating full functionality, but they all had been neatly disconnected from the equipment that they once powered. Those lights would probably stay green for centuries, left in these conditions.

And of course, there were the six Pioneer-class micro-habs, which were basically four-man tents pimped out to keep their occupants alive if not comfortable in environments ranging from the top of Olympus Mons to the Far Side of Luna. Plug in a tank of pressurised air and a decent power supply, and it gave you a survivable temperature and kept your atmosphere oxygenated. Shepard had used them herself, in similar enough conditions during her time with the Interplanetary Combatives Training program. They might not protect you from a thresher maw attack, but in extreme cold and hard vacuum they could give you a place to sleep, eat and live without wearing a 3-inch pressure suit.

As long as they were kept supplied with power, which these particular units weren't. Scanning the micro-habs with her Omni-tool, Shepard confirmed her suspicions. Each one had been without power long enough that their interiors were as cold and dead as the rest of the planet. Not that it would have taken particularly long. The metal floor of the structure was just as cold as what little atmosphere was inside it, and that would have sapped the heat from inside the habitats within minutes, no matter how thick the insulation was.

No one had spoken a word since entering the chamber; it was Garrus who finally broke the silence.

"I don't think this is going to be a search and rescue mission."

"More like salvage and recovery now," Kasumi replied. "I've found a few working datapads, and none of them have entries made more recently than 6 months ago. I don't think anyone's still alive here."

Shepard said nothing. She knew there was no way that anyone could still be alive inside the micro-habs, but that didn't mean they were empty. And if no one was inside, then it couldn't hurt to open one up and take a look. Overriding the safety mechanisms that kept the pressurized micro-habs sealed and shut would not be an easy task though. Once a micro-hab was pressurized, it was designed only open from the inside, and even then only after a long and slow depressurization routine. Shepard had learned how to open a micro-hab from the outside during her training, but that method involved the use of a small amount of high explosive, and would most likely cause serious damage to whatever evidence she might hope to find inside.

Making her decision, Shepard called Kasumi over to her position.

"Can you get these habitats opened safely? I don't want explosive decompression ruining whatever's inside."

"Shepard, if I didn't know any better I'd think you were trying to insult me. I've broken through more military-grade security systems than I can count, some cheap commercial safety protocols are child's play by comparison. Help me plug the generators back into the habitats and I'll have them open in no time."

Shepard gave a quick laugh before replying.

"You don't know the military very well, do you Kasumi? Commissioned officers don't do manual labor, we delegate it."

Pausing for a moment, she switched her suit radio from "Transmit to individual" to "Transmit to all".

"Miranda, Jacob; give Kasumi a hand with the habitat generators. Garrus, look around the site and try to find anything that might tell us what happened to Cerberus's research team. Mordin, see if you can recover any of their data."

Before anyone else could respond, Jacob radioed back in.

"Commander, I think I've found something big. You're gonna want to see this."

"What is it, Jacob? Can it wait until we've got these habitats opened?"

"Negative, commander. I think this is the 'Significant Discovery' the research team reported before we lost contact with them."

Shepard turned to Kasumi and shrugged, as if to say "What can you do?"

Making her way to Jacob's position on the other side of the base camp, Shepard radioed the team a second time.

"Jacob, I'm heading over to see what you've found. Miranda, help Kasumi get those habitats open. Garrus, Mordin, your last instructions still stand."

Five different voices came back with five slightly different ways of saying the exact same thing.

"Understood, Commander."

"Understood, Shepard."

"No problem, Shep."

"You got it, Shepard."

"Affirmative."

Shepard reached Jacob's location just in time to see him pull his head out of the top of an open crate. He had a datapad in one hand, and a heavy pistol in the other. Shepard didn't recognize the model.

"Alright Jacob, what have you found?"

Jacob shrugged before handing over the datapad.

"Here, read the last two entries in this journal. It'll probably give you a clearer explanation than I can."

Shepard clicked back to the relevant page and started reading.

_Day 491_

_We don't have any way to confirm it, but Davidson__ and I suspect that the Anomaly might be a portal of some kind. The images surrounding it seem to correspond to neighboring star systems, but it's entirely possible that we're misinterpreting them. They're simplistic enough to be quite ambiguous, so we've taken pictures for further examination. The radiation in that chamber limits the time we can spend investigating there. Langford isn't letting us in there for more than twenty minutes at a time, which is ridiculous in my opinion. We should be able to stay in there for over an hour without putting ourselves at risk, especially with these environment suits that we have to wear. _

_He's also making us work in groups of 6, rather than the usual 3, which cuts down immensely on the ground that we can cover. When anyone tries to talk to him about it he just starts yelling. I think the stress is getting to him, but it's not like he has an excuse. I don't think any of us has had enough sleep for the past 9 weeks. The dreams still haven't gone away, and they still don't make any sense. Just flashing lights and geometric patterns, and you wake up feeling like you didn't get any rest at all. Garber's been saying something about ambient magnetic fields causing crossfire in the optic nerves, or something like that. _

_He's probably talking out of his ass though. The man's a chemist, not a biologist._

_-Rachel Lee  
_

Scrolling down the page, Shepard saw the aforementioned pictures. Apparently this research team had a penchant for serious understatement, as "simplistic" didn't really do justice in describing the symbols she was looking at. To her it just looked like a mess of rings and dots. Seeing nothing else of interest, she moved on to the final entry.

_Day 494_

_I'm certain now that the Anomaly is some sort of transportation device, and I think Davidson has almost got Langford convinced too. We've found some out-of-place artifacts in adjacent chambers that can't be easily explained otherwise._

_We've stored the artifacts in containers _B-07 _and _D-39. _They'll be crucial evidence if we have to convince the Illusive Man of the significance of this installation._

_-Rachel Lee_

Intrigued now, Shepard looked upwards to see Jacob watching her expectantly.

"Okay, Jacob. Let me take a wild guess and assume that you were looking for the 'Out-of-place artifacts' that were mentioned in the last entry?"

Jacob nodded.

"Yeah, and I think I found 'em."

He pointed at the crate that Shepard had seen him looking through. It was a cube with slightly rounded edges, with sides measuring slightly more than a meter in length. Shepard stepped over and peered into it, activating the lights on her helmet as she did so.

"It's just a bunch of... Guns?"

"Not ordinary guns Commander. These things are seriously old. Look at this."

Turning back to face Jacob, Shepard saw that he was holding the heavy pistol by the barrel, with the grip facing her. She took it from him carefully, noting that the pistol was unusually heavy. She turned the pistol on its side and scraped some frost off from the barrel. Holding it closer to the light from her helmet, she looked to see the make and model.

Engraved onto the side of the barrel were the words 'HOOD ARSENAL'_._

Shepard frowned. She'd never heard of that manufacturer before. She flipped the pistol over in her hand and checked the other side of the barrel to see if there was anything else written there.

MAJESTIC .50

.50AE TACTICAL REVOLVER

MADE IN USA

_What the hell? A revolver?_

Jacob's voice snapped Shepard out of her puzzlement.

"Commander, I've looked at all of those weapons, and they all seem to be human-made. Probably 21st century technology. A lot of metal and synthetic parts, and not a trace of eezo in any of them. My guess is, some poor bastard stumbled into a portal in one of the Ceph ruins on Earth over a century back and wound up here. Probably a soldier, judging by all the weapons they brought with them. And unless they were wearing some kind of heavy-duty environmental suit, they would have frozen to death in seconds."

Shepard didn't answer immediately. Jacob's suggestion was plausible, but the possible implications of an undiscovered teleportation device that linked to Earth were staggering. Unable to suggest an alternative explanation, she shrugged.

"We should try and find more evidence before jumping to any conclusions. Let's find that second crate, for a start."

Jacob shook his head.

"No need, Commander. The researchers were well organised, they put the two containers right next to each other."

He pointed over his shoulder with his thumb, tilting his head back for emphasis.

"Alright then, let's crack it open and see what's inside."

The second crate was bigger than the first, measuring roughly a meter tall and a meter wide, and two meters long. The lid had been secured with four locks along the rim, but Shepard and Jacob popped them open easily with gentle biotic pulls. Lifting the lid away, Shepard glanced down into the crate and flinched, almost dropping the lid.

Lying face down in the crate was a skinned human corpse.

But as she set the lid down and took a second, closer look, Shepard realized she had been mistaken. Though it had an uncanny resemblance to skinless muscle, a sight that she was far too familiar with, the material she was looking at was obviously synthetic. The hexagonal patterning and protrusions of silvery metal told her that much. What she was seeing was a man, because the figure was obviously male, inside of a strange vacuum suit. Perhaps it was one of the Cerberus researchers? The hexagonal pattern was certainly similar to the bodysuits that Jacob and Miranda usually wore. And then Jacob leaned over the other side of the crate, took one look at the body and swore.

"Holy shit!"

Shepard looked up, and saw the shock in his eyes. Confused and concerned, she asked:

"What is it?"

Jacob took a while to respond.

"That- that's... I think that's a Nanosuit!"

* * *

Author's notes:

Right, I think that's all I can do for now. Due to a combination of work and home related issues, I haven't had much time to work on the story, and a lot of what I have done i've had to type on my iPhone, which has been a pretty frustrating experience. Autocorrect makes absolutely no sense some times. I really hope my next update is more timely, as the next chapter should be much more exciting than these last few have been. Spoilers: Guns will be fired, and we'll get to see what biotics can do in a Zero Gravity environment. As promised, Alcatraz is now on the scene, but he won't be up and running for another chapter or so. A century-long ice nap isn't something a guy can just shrug off in an instant, even if he is in a nanosuit. Please leave a review!


	6. Codex Entry- The Relay 314 Incident

Crysis is the property of Crytek and Electronic Arts

Mass Effect is the property of Bioware and Electronic Arts

* * *

(Extract taken from Codex, English edition, revised version accurate as of 2185 CE, Alliance Standard Calendar)

**Codex Entry- Relay 314 Incident**

The Relay 314 Incident, referred to by most humans as the Shanxi Massacre, marked Humanity's first contact with a Council-aligned species, the Turians. At the time of the incident (*2157 CE, Alliance Standard Calendar), Earth's International Space Exploration Agency (ISEA) allowed for registered survey vessels to activate any dormant Mass Relays that were discovered. The practice of of activating dormant Mass Relays has been, and still is illegal in Council space since the Rachni Wars, which began approximately in the year 1 CE, as defined by the Alliance Standard Calendar.

The Relay 314 Incident began with a Turian patrol fleet entering the local star system of Relay 314, where they discovered several Human ships attempting to activate the Mass Relay. These ships were unarmed research and exploration vessels owned by the Magellan Foundation, a non-governmental volunteer exploration group registered with the ISEA. The warships of the Turian patrol fleet were designed with partial stealth in mind, and their approach was not detected by the Human ships. Without attempting to communicate with the Human vessels, the Turian fleet opened fire, destroying all but one of the Human ships. The surviving Human ship, the RV Aldrin fled to the nearby colony of Shanxi, where a warning was sent onward to Earth, unbeknownst to the Turians.

The Occupation of Shanxi

The Turian fleet, having called for reinforcements, followed the Aldrin to Shanxi, where they occupied the planet in a manner of hours. At the time, the Human Systems Alliance was little more than an interplanetary police service, enforcing the laws established by the member nations of Earth's United Nations Security Council (In contrast with its modern incarnation as a united Pan-Human governmental and representative body). As such, the forces that the Systems Alliance had deployed on Shanxi were incapable of mounting any meaningful resistance against the Turian fleet, which had already ensured both orbital and aerial dominance. Not recognizing a distinction between the colony's armed forces and its civilians, the Turians indiscriminately destroyed much of Shanxi's infrastructure with orbital strikes. Targets included power plants, communications centers, and media hubs.

Conditions on the ground

Without power, water treatment facilities and hydroponic farms ground to a halt. Though the Turians attempted to import rations of both food and water for Shanxi's populace, the difficulties involved with the procurement of Levo-amino based food resulted in mass starvation on Shanxi. The mood among Shanxi's civilians was one of fear, desperation, and anger.

The Shanxi Massacre

Events on the ground finally came to a climax 57 days into the occupation, when several young Humans at a crowded rations-distributions center set up in a major city by the occupying Turians were shot by Turian security personnel while attempting to steal extra rations. The crowd of hundreds, who had gathered to collect their rations, were outraged by the shooting of the youths, who were unarmed. This manifested first as shouting and throwing small objects at the Turian personnel, but quickly developed into a violent riot as the Turians attempted to retreat in an armored ground vehicle, taking the remaining rations with them. The riot spread quickly through the city, with Turian ground forces being overrun by sheer force of numbers, as roughly 2500 Turian soldiers attempted to pacify or neutralize nearly 40 000 rioting Humans. Eventually, General Desolas Arterius, the commanding officer of the Turian occupation force, ordered that the entire city be bombed, with Turian soldiers instructed to take shelter in their ground vehicles. In total, 629 Turian Soldiers were killed, while over 31 000 Humans were killed.

Earth's counteroffensive

Finally, 73 days after the initial conflict at Relay 314 and after 72 days of Shanxi's occupation, Earth launched a counteroffensive in the form of the First International Fleet. Though Earth's most powerful nations had long possessed their own fleets of military spacecraft, they were invariably designed solely as a means of maintaining orbital superiority and protecting key installations such as space stations from attacks by local insurgents using small, private spacecraft in ramming attacks. As such, the First International Fleet consisted mostly of government-owned FTL-capable transport spacecraft that had undergone emergency weaponization modifications. Lacking shields, and armed only with weak point-defense lasers and short ranged missiles, these ships were inferior to the Turian warships in every measure save two: Cost and numbers.

Each of these ships, measuring anywhere between 100 to 300 meters in length and 30 to 100 meters in height and width, consisted of an armored, airtight box covered in RCS thrusters and weapon hardpoints with a single hybrid Fusion Rocket/Mass Effect core mounted onto the back. Tens of thousands of similar ships had been used to ferry goods and travelers between Earth, Luna and Mars for decades prior to Humanity's discovery of the Prothean ruins on Mars. Converting these cargo ships into rudimentary warships was simple compared to the effort required to make them FTL-capable in the first place.

In total, the First International Fleet consisted of 7500 of these improvised warships. The Turian fleet over Shanxi consisted of only 432 warships.

Next Page- The Battle for Shanxi

* * *

Author's note: Sorry for the long delay, but rest assured, this fic is not dead. If it dies, you will all be notified of its death. For now, let's just say it's resting. I admit, I'm having trouble writing the next chapter in an entertaining manner, especially the fight sequence. So for now, I'm being more informative and fleshing out the more AU elements of my story. The next proper story chapter could be a few weeks, leave a review to let me know what you though of this and if you'd like to see more infodump chapters like it. Some people like that kind of thing, apparently.


	7. Chapter 5: Awakening

Crysis is the property of Crytek and Electronic Arts

Mass Effect is the property of Bioware and Electronic Arts

* * *

Welcome to the Future: Chapter 5

"Commander, we need to bring this onboard the _Normandy_."

"We will, Jacob; along with any other personnel we recover here, living or dead. First, we need to find out what happened to the researchers."

Shepard could tell that Jacob was about to protest. He had raised his right hand to chest-height, fingers opened, as if he was a shy kid in a classroom trying to get the teacher's attention. But before he could begin his sentence, Miranda stepped in from the left side of Shepard's field of vision and interrupted.

"I disagree, Commander. This takes top priority. We need to secure that Nanosuit _now_."

Shepard started, and had to resist the urge to go for her weapon. She hadn't expected Miranda to appear from behind her like that, and she did not appreciate being sneaked up on. It really didn't help that Miranda had shown up so damn _fast_.

Over her suit radio, she could faintly hear Kasumi's complaints that no-one was helping her with the generators. She shut it out.

Prior to the destruction of the Normandy SR1, Shepard's few interactions with Cerberus had left her with a far from favorable impression of the shadowy organisation. And in the few weeks since her "recovery", she had found nothing that suggested their ways had changed for the better.

Which left her in something of a dilemma now. She knew the reputation that Nanosuits had, even though more than a century had passed since they had last been fielded by any military force.

Simply put, Nanosuits were the stuff of legend, a 21st century equivalent to Greek Fire or Damascus steel. A technology that had put all of its contemporary competitors to shame, and that mankind had summarily lost the knowledge or ability to create or use. And while the latter two had been eventually surpassed by more modern innovations, no form of armor developed by humans or _any _of the other council-aligned races had come close to matching the capabilities that Nanosuits were said to have possessed.

Certainly, a decent suit of armor and a good kinetic barrier could offer just as much, if not more protection then a Nanosuit; and there existed cloaking systems and exoskeletons that could make any soldier transparent as glass or strong enough to throw a Krogan overhead like a ragdoll; but the simple fact was that no other armor system existed that could do _all three things at once._

Even if the skeptics were right, and the Nanosuit's capabilities were vastly overstated, any organisation that managed to recreate that technology would gain an immense advantage in future infantry engagements.

And Shepard was _damned_ if she was going to let _Cerberus_ be the first organisation to do it.

Miranda obviously sensed her hesitation, because she quickly offered a concession.

"I suggest that Jacob and I bring the suit up to the shuttle, along with the associated weaponry, while you and the others continue.._ investigating_ here. We'll come back down once we have the Nanosuit secured in the shuttle."

She paused.

"I estimate that it would probably take us around 30 minutes to make the trip to the shuttle and back."

_Which gives you half an hour to investigate a Cerberus outpost on an alien world without the supervision of any Cerberus personnel._

Shepard smiled. She still didn't entirely trust Miranda, but she had to admit, the woman knew how to bargain. As long as Shepard was present onboard the _Normandy_ when the suit was brought aboard, she would have the final say on what was done with it. And while Miranda would undoubtedly send data on the suit back to the Illusive Man and Cerberus at large, that was infinitely preferable to letting Cerberus get their hands on the Nanosuit itself.

Jacob glanced between the two of them, confused. Miranda had been transmitting to Shepard only, so he'd heard none of what she had said. All he could see were his Commanding Officer and Executive Officer apparently staring each other down.

Shepard spoke then, transmitting to both him and Miranda.

"Alright Miranda, you bring this up to the shuttle and then come right back. Jacob, you're going with her."

Surprised by her sudden change of tone, Jacob stared blankly at her for a fraction of a second before responding. "Understood, Ma'am."

Shepard turned away and headed back to help Kasumi with the generators, as Miranda and Jacob started the trek back through the tunnel towards the waiting shuttle, laden with their grisly trophy. By the time she got back to her, Kasumi had managed to restore power to the micro-habitats; "No thanks to Miranda. Wasn't she meant to be helping me?"

"We found a more pressing issue. Besides, you seem to have done alright without her help."

Looking over the six habitats, Shepard waved an arm to the nearest one. "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's pop the cork."

Kasumi activated her Omni-tool, linking it with the habitat in question. Shepard felt the floor vibrating through her feet as air was pumped out of the habitat and back into a waiting pressure tank. Then, a red light on the habitat flipped to green as the pressure inside the habitat reached equilibrium with the ambient pressure and the pump stopped running. Shepard grabbed at the flexible seal that served as the habitat's door and pulled it away, tearing it from the rest of the habitat like a scab from a wound. Tiny crystals of ice cracked and drifted away in the low gravity from as the seal crumpled to the floor. Bending low to clear the entrance, Shepard peered into the cramped interior of the tent-like habitat.

The habitat's occupants lay inside, a foot of empty floor space separating each one. They were three women, all curled into the foetal position. A thin layer of frost obscured their features, but Shepard could tell that their eyes were closed and their jaws were clenched tight. All three of them were wrapped in thick, full-body sleeping bags, the kind that had separate closed sleeves for the arms and legs. They didn't store heat as effectively as the traditional kind, but they allowed the wearer much more freedom of movement. Other detritus littered the area, including the insulated pressure suits that the women would have worn for any normal work outside the habitat.

_Hypothermia. Probably happened in minutes, when the power to the habitat got disconnected. Probably while they were asleep, and they didn't regain consciousness. If they had been conscious, they'd have clustered together to conserve heat._

They'd have to perform autopsies to confirm her suspicions, but that could happen later when the bodies were moved to the Normandy. For now, Shepard moved on, checking the remaining five habitats one by one. She found similar scenes in each one, the only difference being the number and gender of the occupants in each habitat. Final tally, six habitats, two with three women in each, four with four men in each, all occupants having apparently frozen to death in their sleep. 22 persons in total, accounting for the entirety of the research team, at least according to the personnel list provided by the Illusive Man.

_Not counting, of course, our mystery man in the crate. Guy stumbles into a portal on Earth, ends up here, and a Cerberus team finds his frozen corpse 100 years later and just throws him in a box. Poor bastard._

Still nagging at her was the unanswered question as to how the Cerberus teams' habitats had all been disconnected from the generators that powered them. It reminded her of a classic "locked room" mystery, except with 22 victims spread across 6 locked rooms.

But Shepard had no time to play detective. The Illusive Man had asked her to discover what had happened to his researchers, and she would tell him the truth: they had all died. _How_ they had died really wasn't her concern, curious as she was. Activating her suit radio again, she made another call to Miranda.

"Miranda, have we got body bags in the shuttle?"

"Yes commander, we do. How many do you need?"

"Twenty-two."

There was brief pause before Miranda responded.

"I see. No survivors then. Jacob and I will bring the bags ba-"

The radio cut out into static then, and Shepard's HUD flashed red. The words _Tesla_ and _Seiverts _popped up in the lower left corner, along with numbers that climbed at an alarming rate. The gentle blue glow of the chamber increased into a harsh white, and then the bottom dropped out of Shepard's stomach as the already low gravity of NK386 suddenly went from 0.3 Gees to 0. Then the numbers in her HUD dropped back down to zero too, and the static in her helmet went away in time for her to hear the rest of the ground team shouting over the newly-cleared airwaves.

"-ust lost gravity-"

"-adiation spike! Probable counter-intrusion mechanis-"

"-The hell's going on! I-"

_"_-_Get it off me-"_

Shepard turned around then, feet firmly planted on the floor thanks to the magnetic grips in her boots, and realized with sudden dread that she couldn't see Kasumi anymore.  
_She was right behind me, where the hell did she go?_

Over her radio, she could hear the team continue to talk over each other.

"-was a _lot _of radiation. We need to clear out of here befo-"

"-no Mass Effect field detected. Must be somehow directly counteracting gravitational f-"

"-crap floating everywhe-"

_"-an't see, something's dragging me-"_

"-Kasumi! Are you alri-"

_"-ing's got my leg now, get it off, get it off-"_

Shepard looked _up_ then, and saw Kasumi floating above her, saw the _thing_ that had wrapped itself around her helmet and half her torso, saw Garrus, holding on to her leg and trying to drag both of them back down to the floor with his hardsuit's EVA thrusters while Kasumi kicked wildly and the_ thing_ swatted at Garrus with a translucent tentacle as thick as a man's bicep.  
She reacted without thinking, extending her left hand outward before clenching her fist and yanking all three of them down towards her with a biotic pull. Kasumi and Garrus crashed to the floor, dazed, but not hurt. The _thing_ unwrapped itself from Kasumi before impact, launching itself at Shepard through the thin atmosphere of the chamber. Shepard swung her hand downward, palm open, as if she were aiming to slam her hand down on a table.

The creature smashed into the floor a meter in front of Shepard's feet and was pinned there by the Mass Effect field that she was generating with her left hand. With her right, she freed her Carnifex from the magnetic hardpoint on her hip and shot the creature in its center of mass, once, twice, three times before it finally stopped moving.

Slowly, and careful not to accidentally launch himself off the floor, Garrus maneuvered himself back onto his feet before reaching down to help Kasumi stand back up. Muttering her thanks, Kasumi just stood there for a few seconds, shaky and weak at the knees despite the lack of gravity to weigh her down.

She turned to Shepard then, before glancing down at the creature.

"What was- what_ is_ that thing?"

The creature, or what was left of it, looked a little bit like a Hanar. The color was different, a pale blue as opposed to the iridescent purple of most Hanar, and its overall shape was sleeker, _meaner_ than a Hanar, but the resemblance was unmistakable. The jelly-like flesh, the faint bioluminescent glow (rapidly fading now), the basic body plan, it was all the same.

Shepard had never seen anything like it before, but she'd heard the stories, and she'd read the historical accounts.  
This thing was what exobiologists called _Charybdis_. In the heat of battle, soldiers had called them _squids_. To everyone else, they were _Ceph_.  
And if the Ceph were here, if they were the ones who had built this place, that meant two things.  
First, it more or less confirmed Jacob's explanation of the corpse of a 21st century human soldier being found on a planet that was over 3000 light years away from Earth.  
Second, it meant that they all had to _get the hell out of there_.

* * *

Author's Notes:

Once again, I apologize for the massive delay in this chapter. Crysis 3 has completely invalidated a lot of my planned plot points, so it's fair to say that this story is going to be completely AU as far as the Crysis universe is concerned. Mass Effect's side of the narrative is going to be left mostly intact, though you can expect to see more differences between my interpretation of "historical events" and the canon established by Mass Effect.

As always, please leave a review, and thanks for reading!.


	8. Chapter 6: Fight or Flight

Crysis is the property of Crytek and Electronic Arts

Mass Effect is the property of Bioware and Electronic Arts

* * *

Welcome to the Future: Chapter 6

Imagine you are Kasumi Goto:

Professional Thief, if such a label could be applied to anyone. Quite possibly the best thief in the galaxy. If there's anyone better than you, you've certainly never heard of them. Of course, that's an unavoidable state of affairs, given your line of work.

After all, you've gone to great lengths yourself to ensure that your competitors have never heard of _you._

Fame is no friend to thieves. _Reputation_ is good. Reputation doesn't necessarily mean that many people know _of_ you, but it does mean that those who _do_ know of you also know what you are capable of. Reputation means confident buyers and plentiful clients. If managed well, a reputation can make you rich.

Fame is different. Fame means that you are known, and that you are known _widely_. Fame means _attention_. Fame means that people can connect your face to your name. For people like you, fame is death.

If nothing else, Keiji has taught you that much.

And still, here you are, riding around the galaxy with the single most _famous_ member of your entire species, aboard a secret warship that's a _secret_ only in the sense that it doesn't appear on any public listings.

_But this is worth it_, you tell yourself. You're here because you need resources, and the _Normandy_ is the best place for you to find them. And if you're going to make an enemy out of one of the most dangerous men in the galaxy, it certainly can't hurt to make a friend out of one of its most dangerous women.  
You need to be here, because you need to know what Keiji knew.  
What was so important that he had to disappear.

_ Why couldn't you tell me? _

What was so important that he had to run away, and leave everything behind.

_I could have helped you. I could have come with you.  
__I _would _have come with you._

What was so important that he had to _die?_

_ Keiji, why did you leave me?_

This is what you will do. You will find his Graybox, the last thing that is left of him. No matter the cost, you will find it and take it back. You will make whatever unsavory deals you have to make, work with anyone who can offer you what you need, and take whatever help you can find.  
If you must, you will kill anyone who stands in your way.

Until you finally have what you want, until you have the Graybox in your hands, nothing else matters.

_When _that happens, you will be in great danger. You will have to leave everything behind. But it won't matter. Because, finally, you will_ know_ the answers to the questions that have plagued you.

Until that happens, nothing else matters.

For now, all you have to do is live long enough to see it through.

* * *

Shepard leaps into empty space, taking a tactical high ground that only she seems to see. Using a combination of her biotics and the thrusters in her suit, she comes to a halt 15 feet above you. Her voice comes in over the radio, cold as ice.

"Garrus, find a firing position and cover the deep end of the structure. Everyone else, head back to the shuttle._ Now_."

Without so much as a word of acknowledgement, Garrus half jumps, half flies to the wall directly over the tunnel you came in from. He lands, then slides upwards and across the wall to a dark corner where the upturned floor melts into the wall. Once there, he draws his rifle and wedges himself firmly into the corner. Every light on his suit goes dark, and only then do you hear his voice.

"_In position_."

The air is thin here, so you don't hear what's coming. You can _feel _it though, as the floor beneath your feet begins to vibrate.  
Even as the adrenaline and panic in your blood fades away, you start to feel genuine, cold fear now- because this floor, like the rest of the structure you're in, is made of metal: strong, solid metal that is completely undamaged and unmarked, even where Shepard shot it through the creature that attacked you.  
And then you realize it's not just the floor, but the _entire room_ that's now shaking violently, but before you can wonder what is causing this, Mordin is at your shoulder and pulling you towards the exit. You follow him gladly.

A bright light flashes in the corner of your vision as Garrus starts to fire at whatever targets he sees behind you. There's no sound, just the blue-white flash of plasma blooming as each projectile leaves the barrel of his rifle.

And then you're in the tunnel, moving in the awkward half-jog that keeps at least one foot on the ground at any given time, trying desperately not to end up bouncing helplessly along in the artificially reduced gravity.

This isn't like you, to run from a fight. You think of violence as a last resort, but even the Best Thief in the Galaxy has to fight their way out when things go wrong. Or, as has been the case on Omega, on Korlus, and on Purgatory, when the people you're working with call violence Plan A.  
But today you are deep inside an alien structure on an uncharted world, being attacked by creatures you don't recognize. The heavy armor you wear to protect yourself from the cold might lend comfort to some, but to you it's a cage. It slows you down, strips you of your most useful tools, it leaves you clumsy and half blind. Today, you are out of your depth.

More flashes of light, and a voice crackles over the radio.

"Grunt, fall back. That's an order. Garrus, you follow him, I'll provide cover fire. Grunt, get out of here _right now_."

_"I'm not gonna back down from a bunch of overgrown squid, Shepard."_

"Grunt, I am _ordering_ you to- Crap! To your right! Watch out, th-"

Static crashes through your earpiece, and the voices are gone. Suddenly, something hits you in the back, hard. Your boots lose their grip on the floor, and you're sent tumbling down the tunnel. Before you can do anything to halt your uncontrolled flight, a wall looms large in your vision. For a brief moment, you see a bright light, and taste iron.

The light fades, and you see no more.

* * *

Author's Note:

No promises for when the next chapter will be up. I'm trying to play around with perspectives, as you will probably have guessed from this chapter.

As always, please leave a review.


End file.
